Matt LeBlanc has been revealed as the newest member of the Top Gear presenting team, and will work alongside Chris Evans to present the new format of the BBC show. But while you might know Matt’s on-screen alter egos pretty well, the man himself likes to fly below the radar.
So here are ten things about Top Gear’s newest host that you might not have realised.
If he hadn’t been an actor, LeBlanc would have worked with wood instead. “Everyone did carpentry, plumbing, roofing in my family. The mentality was, if it was broke, you fixed it,” he told the Daily Telegraph in a 2014 interview.
His mother saves up DIY jobs for Matt to do whenever he goes home to visit. Indeed, one of the first things he did with his Friends pay cheque was to buy her a new home.
Twice, in fact – during his youth. “When I was young and stupid,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I wasn’t driving fast, just crooked. The press never got hold of the mugshots. I was lucky.”
LeBlanc has owned a 1,064-acre ranch near Los Alamos in California since 2002, where he spends much of his time rearing Mexican Corriente cattle for rodeos. He once joked: “I love cattle. I have branded cattle, castrated cattle, tackled cattle, had my way with cattle…”
During a self-imposed exile from Hollywood life, Matt took to cutting his own hair, sometimes into a Mohawk, in order to ensure he didn’t try to go out. “I knew I wasn’t missing out on anything,” he said. “I had dabbled with the celebrity world. I’d partied a bit. But there wasn't anything there that could fulfil me. I mean, I have beers in the fridge at home.”
Matt’s fiercely protective of his daughter, Marina, of whom he shares custody with his ex-wife, Melissa McKnight. The pair are on good terms, and Matt’s teaching Melissa to ride horses at his ranch.
While the characters he plays are more readily associated with New York and California, LeBlanc actually grew up in a suburb of Boston. His mother is of Italian descent, while his father was French-Canadian.
LeBlanc once owned up to owning 100 dirt bikes, and he also has a huge collection of cars at his ranch that he enjoys working on. “I find carpentry and mechanics therapeutic,” he once said. “I take my motorcycles apart and put them back together.’
“I would love to have a jet. I can't afford a jet,” he said in an interview for The Guardian. “Maybe a small jet. But who wants a small jet?”
In an interview with The Independent, Stephen Mangan, LeBlanc’s Episodes co-star, said: “My fears when I took the job – that he would be the work, dealing with him – have not come to pass. He's a joy and has become a proper friend.”
